Our Ice Cream
Know what you're licking.
To us, "honest" simply means we use the purest ingredients we can find in our artisanal ice creams. What doesn’t go into our ice creams is just as important as what does. We never use artificial colors or flavors, high fructose corn syrup or preservatives, ever! We can trace every single ingredient we use to its source. Ice cream shouldn’t just taste good — we believe it should also be good.
We take great pride in witnessing our milk and cream as it journeys from the cow to your scoop. All of the milk and cream used to make our ice creams comes from family owned dairies in Texas and Wisconsin; and everything from the sauces, syrups, cookies, cakes and marshmallows is made by hand in our kitchen. We churn every batch and pack each pint by hand in our kitchen. We roll each waffle cone made from our homemade recipe in our shops every single day. All in an effort to serve up the freshest, most honest ice creams possible. We are also committed to sustainability by using only compostable cups, spoons and napkins in our shops.
Our Cilantro Lime, Dewberry Corn Cobbler and Sweet Persimmon and Sage ice creams are just some of the flavors inspired by and created with seasonal offerings from Texas. We work directly with local farmers and food artisans to source our fine ingredients to guarantee a farm-to-table product that is always fresh and delicious!
OUR CO-FOUNDERS
Anthony and Chad opened Lick Honest Ice Creams in the fall of 2011 because they wanted to offer “honest ice creams” to savvy palates in Austin. Both grew up in small rural communities, enjoying homemade ice cream: Anthony from Hallettsville in South Central Texas and Chad from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The two met in New York City in the winter of 2005 and immediately connected (small town minds in the big city). As the years passed and after many train rides to Lancaster, Anthony began to truly appreciate what Chad grew up with…local, small town ice cream shops that made seasonal flavors with locally sourced ingredients: fresh, unique and delicious! With each lick, Anthony wondered what kind of flavors he could craft from the ingredients he grew up eating in Texas. Chad never ate ice cream at a chain, and from 2005 on, Anthony didn’t either.
In New York, Anthony (who had actually moved to the city with hopes of being a writer for a food magazine) worked as a caterer and event planner, where he deepened his love of working with food. He became inspired by the menus and dishes he helped develop and began mentally storing this inspiration for future use. Eventually, Chad's career took them away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan to the Midwest. There Anthony joined a local bakery and continued to dream of ways to include all of his favorite dishes and desserts into one thing. As several years passed, the dream of honest ice creams began dancing in their heads. All the while, with each trip to visit Anthony’s family and friends, Chad was falling more and more in love with Austin and becoming inspired by its creative spirit and local flavors. Finally, the right time came and the decision was made to sell their home and move to Austin. Thus began the realization of a dream and the building of
Lick Honest Ice Creams.
OUR DAIRY
Our ice creams are made from a custom and proprietary base mix that we created, are always monitoring and will never stop improving. We know every single ingredient in it!
This is essentially unheard of in our industry!
The star of our base is the milk and cream we have the honor of sourcing from family owned dairies in Texas and Wisconsin. These families have owned and operated their dairies for generations and are some of the kindest, hardest working people you will ever meet! They truly care about their cows and the milk and cream their select grass-fed herds produce.
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This amazing milk and cream is the only milk and cream in our ice creams.
OUR FARMERS & ARTISANS
Austin is blessed with a wonderful climate and numerous farms that we at Lick Ice creams get to work with. From the fresh mint and earthy beets we get in East Austin, to the fragrant lavender and luscious peaches harvested in the Texas Hill Country out west, we base our flavors on what the local land currently has to offer. If it's not in season in Texas, It's not in our ice cream!
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We also collaborate with amazing local food artisans, such as chocolatiers, bee keepers — and even butchers — who help enhance the quality and flavor profiles of our ice creams. They ensure that you’ll never find a mass-produced, generic marshmallow or a non-local hint of honey in any of our scoops.